Police chief ‘wanted thousands in tax-free cash to move house’
Deputy chief constable got £67k of taxpayers’ money
‘It was akin to paying a bonus’
SCOTLAND’S most senior female police officer asked for her house move to be funded by the taxpayer ‘in cash’, a tribunal heard yesterday.
Whistleblower Amy McDonald said she raised concerns over the proposal as it meant the money for Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatrick would not be taxed.
Mrs McDonald, 44, a Scottish Police Authority (SPA) chartered accountant, also claimed confidential details of her employment tribunal claim were passed to Mrs Fitzpatrick by an SPA board member.
Mrs Fitzpatrick contacted Mrs McDonald’s lawyer to say mentioning where she lived in legal documents could put her and her family at risk – which left Mrs McDonald ‘frightened’ and stressed.
Mrs McDonald launched the tribunal, seeking compensation for ‘injury to hurt feelings’, in Glasgow under whistleblowing legislation, claiming that she was sidelined and frozen out of key meetings after making allegations of ‘financial wrongdoing’.
She contacted finance watchdog Audit Scotland and Justice Secretary Michael Matheson about her concerns.
Mrs Fitzpatrick became Scotland’s most senior female officer when she moved from the Metropolitan Police in London in 2012, ahead of the formation of Police Scotland in April 2013. An Audit Scotland report said she received £18,000 to relocate in 2014-15 and £49,000 for a similar move in 2016-17.
Mrs McDonald said she queried this with SPA official John McCroskie, who said it should be paid, adding: ‘If the Chief Constable presented an expenses payment for relocation, we would be paying that.’
But Mrs McDonald ‘could not see any exceptional circumstances to support this payment as a valid payment for relocation expenses’.
She said it was ‘akin to paying a bonus’ – which was not allowed under SPA or Scottish Govern- ment rules. Mrs McDonald was also concerned at the relocation expenses as Mrs Fitzpatrick had lived in Scotland for four years.
She said: ‘I reported the payment should be made through the payroll system so tax and National Insurance could be deducted.
‘DCC Fitzpatrick had asked for a cash payment through electronic transfer. When you do that, it does not go through the expenses system.’
She said she warned it was a ‘high-risk area’ and ‘we need to be very careful’, adding she believed there should be a review ‘before consideration was given to a payment’. But she claimed the first draft of the SPA’s accounts did not mention the relocation expenses.
She asked Mr McCroskie to pass her concerns to then SPA chief executive John Foley, adding: ‘If I hadn’t made that disclosure, I felt I would not be doing my job.’
Some details of where Mrs Fitzpatrick lived in the South of England had been given in legal documents for the tribunal. But Mrs McDonald said they only identified the area, not the postcode.
Within days of the confidential documents being produced – Mrs McDonald said ‘the ink wasn’t dry’ – Mrs Fitzpatrick had complained to Mrs McDonald’s solicitor that the inclusion of the property details could put her and her family at risk from terrorists.
She said it was later discovered SPA board member Dr Nicola Marchant had told Mrs Fitzpatrick – and that the ‘whole of the Police Scotland executive team were aware of the claim’.
Mrs McDonald, who was the SPA’s financial accountability officer and now works in the forensics division, said: ‘I was very upset; she had breached a legal confidence by telling DCC Fitzpatrick.
‘It was a breach of confidence. I felt threatened by that. The SPA had acted improperly. It was extremely unfair. I felt it was a threat by my own employer and it really made me feel very unwell.’
Mrs Fitzpatrick is due to retire on June 30. Yesterday it was revealed Dr Marchant, who stepped down as deputy chairman last month, would quit the SPA on March 21.
The tribunal continues.